Team Stats

Passing Yards

Rushing Yards

Turnovers

Time of Poss.

BALTIMORE, MD - Visiting St. John Fisher ate more than 14
minutes off the clock in the first quarter and never let host Johns
Hopkins get comfortable as the Cardinals topped the Blue Jays,
23-12, in the first round of the NCAA Division III Football
Playoffs at Homewood Field Saturday afternoon. The win propels
Fisher (9-2) into the second round and a trip to Delaware Valley, a
62-10 winner over Norwich on Saturday. Johns Hopkins ends the
season at 10-1 and had its school-record 15-game wining streak
snapped.

The Cardinals led just 13-12 after Johns Hopkins' Scott
Barletta capped a 12-play, 87-yard drive with a one-yard
run midway through the third quarter. As they had done early the
game, the Cardinals answered with a long drive that Cody Miller
polished off with a two-yard scoring run of his own. The
eight-play, 75-yard drive took just less than three minutes and was
highlighted by a 42-yard pass form Ahmed Hassanien to Ryan Francis
that set the Cardinals up at the Blue Jay 22- yard line. Miller
went over five plays later to make it an eight-point game.

Hopkins had a chance to pull even early in the fourth quarter,
but a 10-play, 58-yard drive came up empty when senior quarterback
Hewitt
Tomlin missed senior running back Nick
Fazioon a swing pass from the Fisher 11 on a fourth-and-six
play that turned the ball over on downs.

St. John Fisher moved the ball out to midfield on its ensuing
possession before punting the Blue Jays deep in their own
territory. Faced with a fourth-and-two from their own 34, the Blue
Jays failed to convert and the Cardinals moved in for what proved
to be the decisive score as Chad Monheim converted his third field
goal of the game, this one from 23 yards out, to make it 23-12.

From there, the Cardinal defense came up with three big plays to
seal the victory. Dave Vosburgh intercepted Tomlin on the first
play after Monheim's field goal and Troy Sant stopped Fazio one
yard shy of a first down on a fourth-and-five play on the JHU's
next possession. The Blue Jays had one final chance late in the
game, but a quick, nine-play, 74-yard drive ended when Tyler Schier
picked off Tomlin in the end zone to kill the threat in the final
minute and secure St. John Fisher's date with Delaware Valley.

Despite rolling up 13:45 in possession time in the first
quarter, the Cardinals led just 3-0 at the end of the period as
Monheim's 26-yard field goal capped a game-opening 16-play, 60-yard
drive that took more than eight minutes off the clock for the only
points of the first quarter. He added a 28-yard field goal on the
second play of the second quarter to make it 6-0, but the Blue Jays
answered with a 13-play, 60-yard drive of their own.

After a 19-yard loss on the first play of the drive, Tomlin
converted a third-and-25 with a 30-yard strike down the middle to
senior Tyler
Porco- one of three third downs the Blue Jays would convert on
the drive. Despite the success on third downs, it was actually a
fourth-down play that resulted in JHU's first touchdown as Tomlin
fired a strike to sophomore Dan Wodicka from six-yards out to pull
the Blue Jays even. The extra point was blocked.

Fisher sandwiched interceptions by Vosburgh and Wade Kline
around a 7-yard touchdown pass from Hassanien to Francis to carry a
13-6 lead into halftime. Hassanien had relieved starting
quarterback Ryan Kramer, who left with a hip injury after a 2-yard
run from the Blue Jay 9-yard line. On his first play of the game,
Hassanien hit Francis and Monheim's drilled the extra point to give
the Cardinals the lead for good.

In a huge swing of momentum, it appeared the Cardinals were
about to take control when they worked their way to the Blue Jay
9-yard line, but Miller's fumble on first-and-goal was recovered by
junior P.J.
Caufield and the Blue Jays took over at their own 13-yard
line.

Mixing the run and pass effectively, the Blue Jays moved deep
into Fisher territory and Barletta's 1-yard run drew the Blue Jays
to within 13-12 with 6:35 remaining in the third quarter. Porco and
junior Jonathan
Rigaud combined for 46 rushing yards and Tomlin connected on
three passes to Wodicka to fuel the drive, but the extra point was
wide right and Miller's 2-yard run followed three minutes later to
give Fisher the eight-point lead that Hopkins couldn't crack.

The Cardinals did a tremendous job of mixing the run and pass
themselves as Miller's 82 yards led a ground attack that accounted
for 162 yards. Hassanien and Kramer combined to go 16-of-25 for 234
yards with the one score and no interceptions. Ryan Schmidt had 11
receptions for 124 yard and Francis added five catches for 110
yards and the one score - no other St. John Fisher player had a
reception on the day.

A trio of Cardinals - Vosburgh, Schier and Travis Jones - led
the way on defense as each had 11 tackles and Vosburgh added two of
St. John Fisher's five interceptions on the day.

Rigaud totaled 137 yards rushing and a career-high 230
all-purpose yards for the Blue Jays, who also got 224 yards passing
from Tomlin and solid days from Wodicka (12-83-1) and
junior Scott
Cremens (10-89-0). Facing a St. John Fisher defense that rushed
just three and dropped eight into coverage to prevent the big play,
Tomlin was forced into a season-high five interceptions, but was
still 31-of-52 for the 224 yards.

The Blue Jay defense kept Hopkins in the game with timely stops
and by holding the Cardinals to three field goals on trips deep
into the red zone. Senior Ryan
Piatek totaled 15 tackles, including 1.5 for losses, while
junior Taylor
Maciow (11 tackles) and senior Michael
Milano (10) also hit double figures in tackles. The Blue Jays
came up with seven tackles for losses on the day and only one of
JHU's five turnovers on the day ended in points for the Cardinals,
but an effective Fisher attack kept the Blue Jays just off balance
enough to advance.